Arizona Task Force 1 recounts 20-day hurricane flood deployments; grant-funded readiness under review
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Summary
Phoenix Fire Department leaders described Arizona Task Force 1’s 20-day deployment to North Carolina and Florida in fall 2024 and noted federal grant support and concerns about continued DHS funding.
Officials for Arizona Task Force 1 told the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee April 2 that the Phoenix-based FEMA urban search-and-rescue team deployed for roughly 20 days to North Carolina and Florida last fall to assist with flooding and storm damage.
Mark Gonzalez, who oversees the Arizona Task Force program, said the task force — sponsored by the Phoenix Fire Department — was formed in 1994 and is one of 28 FEMA USAR teams nationwide. The team operates under ESF‑9 urban search and rescue and is supported by a readiness cooperative agreement from the Department of Homeland Security that provides about $1.4 million annually for training, equipment and administration.
Division Chief Jake Van Hook and Deputy Chief Chris Healy described the fall deployment: the task force pre‑positioned nationally for a major storm, was activated in late September for flooding in Asheville, North Carolina, and later moved to the St. Petersburg, Florida, area for storm-related structural damage assessments. Healy, who served as task force leader, said crews conducted searches, damage assessments and worked in austere conditions with no electricity or cellular service in places they entered.
Van Hook said Arizona Task Force 1 brought 16 vehicles and roughly 100,000 pounds of equipment valued at about $7 million and that the deployment included search, technical rescue, hazardous-materials capability and logistical support for 45-person task-force teams. He said local backfill of Phoenix Fire operational positions during federal deployments is reimbursed under the federal model.
Officials said readiness funding allows the task force to maintain technical rescue skills — trench, confined space, collapse rescue — that have also been used locally on incidents such as recent structural collapses. Gonzalez and Van Hook said they are monitoring the federal funding outlook, coordinating with congressional delegations and national leadership to sustain the grant that underwrites readiness and equipment storage.
Subcommittee members thanked the team and asked about equipment-use rules; presenters said federal grant guidelines permit local or state use of equipment in extreme cases provided the team remains ready for federal deployment.